Love Potion Number Nine
by Saxgoddess25
Summary: An aquaintance comes to Severus Snape with an unusual request and his life just might be forever changed.  A bit of light fluff written for my friend Megan.  This may turn into more later.


Thursday night. Severus Snape found that he quite liked Thursday nights. The hour was late but he was still wide awake. He'd been taking an inventory of supplies since after dinner and once finally finished with that, he picked up the sleep-inducing task of grading parchments. Snape had only made it through a few when there was a soft knock on his door. Frowning down at the scroll in front of him, he called out for whomever it was to enter.

It was probably one of his Slytherins, perhaps Malfoy, looking for help with something. Still, it had to be near to curfew. A blandishment came to his lips as a figure paused before his desk. Before he could make his sharp remark, however, the person spoke. "Wotcher Professor."

He felt a lot more surprise than the expression on his face betrayed. Slowly he looked up from his work, his gaze dragging the entire length of the woman in front of him before he met her gaze.

"Nymphadora?" He leaned back in his chair and crossed his hands over his abdomen. Her eyes narrowed.

"Would you please _not_ call me that!"

As vehement as her voice was, the potions master could tell that she was trying very hard to remain civil. Curious.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" _Nymphadora._ They both knew he'd thought it and it was obvious that she was grinding her teeth. It took a few seconds before she drew in a deep breath and let it out, forcing herself – he could tell that too – to give him a bright a smile. Moving closer, she leaned one hip against his desk, letting her leg dangle and kick lightly against the wood.

"I need a favor."

"Oh?" The professor's eyes were drawn to her gently moving leg, clad in form-fitting black jeans and high black boots. "What sort of favor would you be wanting from me?"

"A potion, of course."

Forcing his glance back up to her face, Severus scowled. "I seem to remember you doing very well in my classes. Why would you need _me_ to furnish _you_ with a potion?"

"I, um…" she toyed with a strand of bubble-gum pink hair, "this one is sorta special."

The potions master's only reply was a raised eyebrow and Tonks blushed almost as brightly as her hair. She mumbled something that Snape thought he heard… but he couldn't have heard what he thought. Could he?

"What was that?"

The woman closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists against the desk. "I said I need a love potion."

Dead silence gripped the room for a long minute. "That's what I thought you said." Snorting, he shook his head. "Why don't you go visit the Weasley twins? I hear they have quite a market in that sort of thing."

"Professor…Severus…I _can't_."

"You can't?" She certainly sounded pretty desperate but that didn't explain why she couldn't bug the Weasleys about it. Tonks was pretty chummy with the family, after all. "Might I at least know who the intended target of your potion is?" Of course, he had his suspicions but the sadist in him wanted her to say it.

"It's Remus," was the muttered reply.

"Come again?" Surely the thrill he felt as he made her repeat herself had to be indecent. It felt too good not to be.

"Remus!" Tonks fairly shouted, her face glowing redder, "Remus Lupin!"

The name echoed in the cavernous chamber and the auror looked like she wanted to melt right into Snape's desk from embarrassment.

"I presume that you want a love potion bound to the two of you. That's why you came to me?"

Biting her lip, she nodded. "You know that's why I couldn't make it myself."

Old magic such as the potion she wanted couldn't be wrought by one it was intended to act upon. That did explain things. Tonks could have made the potion to a certain point but it would only have been a general-use love potion; one that would have worn off after a short time.

"I'm sorry, I can't do it." His manner was casual and a bit brusque. In truth he felt conflicted.

Snape didn't really have anything against the auror herself, even if she was annoying and did have abysmal taste in men. Lupin, however, was another matter entirely. Severus just didn't care to participate in anything that promised to make the other man happy – even if that happiness was instigated through less-than-honorable means.

"Severus, please!" Reaching down, Tonks grabbed one of his hands before he could pull it away. Her hands were warm and soft and quite suddenly he felt himself imagining what they might feel like in completely different circumstances. He shook his head to clear it of such thoughts and when he spoke again, his voice was gruffer than he'd intended.

"I'm no hedge-wizard. I don't go around peddling amulets and potions to lovesick fools. Besides which, what you're asking me to do is wrong."

"That's rich coming from a Death Eater."

_Touché._

"_Former_ Death Eater, Tonks." His modulated voice stressed her surname, letting her know that he could have tortured her further with her given name if he so chose. "You know I do only what I must to remain in the Dark Lord's good graces so that I can help the Order."

"Look, let's not argue about this. Will you please just help me out? I'll owe you, okay? Anything you want; anything at all."

"Anything?" Well now that might prove interesting.

"Yes!"

"Done." The potions master extricated his hand from her grip and then turned it sideways to seal the deal. After an almost imperceptible hesitation, Tonks shook it. "You're sure that you want to go through with this?"

There was another pause before she answered. "It's the only option. I know he fancies me, he just thinks he shouldn't subject me to a life with 'a creature like him' or similar rubbish. I don't want to wait years until he figures it out so I thought I'd speed the process up a bit."

"How revoltingly sweet." Snape rose and went to peer at a nearby bookshelf to hide his true feelings on the subject. "I presume you have a piece of him to use in the binding?"

The auror rolled her eyes. "I'm not a first year you know." Reaching into the pocket of her open jacket, she pulled out a little bottle with a few hairs in it.

"It's hard to tell sometimes."

"Git!"

"Ah, ah, ah, Miss Tonks. This git is doing you a very large favor. Do try to remember that."

Surprisingly, the auror bit her tongue and didn't say anything else. He could feel her eyes on him as he opened a book and leafed through it. The pages were old and crumbling and in fact, only a very strong stasis spell kept it from disintegrating into dust. After a few seconds he found what he wanted and moved over to his work bench to start gathering ingredients. Love potions were not something that he had a lot of experience in brewing but he'd make do. If there was one thing that Snape was confident about, it was his ability to brew a perfect potion.

Tonks peered over his shoulder at the book. "'Love potion number nine?' Why is it called that?"

The feel of her body close to his made Severus distinctly uncomfortable. "I may be old, Tonks, but I am not ancient enough to know the answer to your inane question. I can only presume that it is the ninth love potion that the wizard who wrote this tome developed."

If he'd thought that Tonks wasn't going to rise to the bait, he really should have known better. She looked at him for a moment, chewing on her lower lip before saying sweetly, "Are you sure you're not that old?"

He gave a snort of actual amusement. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Severus Snape did have a sense of humor. "Quite sure, yes. Perhaps you could go ask Albus. He may have an answer for you."

"Uh, no thanks." The potions master looked up to find her blushing. "I don't think I want the Headmaster to know about this."

"And you believe he won't know the next time he sees you and your paramour at a meeting of the Order?" It was surprisingly easy to get the color to rise in her cheeks. Perhaps this visit wasn't as annoying as he'd thought.

"Do you really think he'll know?"

"Oh please, Nymphadora. When was the last time that Albus Dumbledore wasn't aware of everything there was to know about the people around him?"

The auror fell thoughtful at that, not even bothering to correct him this time for using her first name. Her blessed silence gave Severus the chance to start working on the first stages of the potion. They were tricky but not nearly so much as the later steps would be.

Of course the silence couldn't last; not with Tonks around. Severus was just dropping powdered asphodelus into his cauldron when he became aware of a sound intruding on his concentration. "What on earth are you humming?" he growled at his companion.

"It's a song."

"Obviously."

"Well you asked!"

"I wanted to know _what_ you were humming. Any imbecile could deduce that it's a song."

He heard her take another slow, calming breath before answering. "It's a popular song from when my dad was a kid. I'm surprised you don't know it, considering that you can't be much younger than he is."

"Well it certainly doesn't sound familiar."

"Its name is 'Love Potion Number 9' by a group called The Clovers. I guess that rock-and-roll isn't your sort of thing, hmm?"

"Never assume, Miss Tonks."

"Oh? Care to enlighten me about your knowledge of rock-and-roll then?"

"No, I shouldn't think so." The potions master pulled a pinch of glittering, grayish-black powder from a nearby jar and sprinkled it slowly into the mixture, stirring precisely nine times in a counter-clockwise rotation.

"Just as I thought. You don't actually know anything about rock music."

Severus gritted his teeth as the last of the powder disappeared into the bubbling cauldron and the mixture turned a shade of pale lavender. "Close your eyes and I'll kiss you, tomorrow I'll miss you, remember I'll always be true…" He sang very quietly but even so it was perfectly audible and obvious that he had quite a good singing voice.

Looking up at her face once more, Severus was gratified to see the surprised expression. "As I said, Miss Tonks, one should never make assumptions about others."

"I love that song!"

Snape simply smiled and went back to work.

"No, really. I do."

"I don't doubt you, Tonks."

He glanced at the little bottle of hairs resting on the table. There was only one more step until he would add them to the potion. Plucking a pickled bat's wing from another jar, he used a sharp paring knife to dice it and then gingerly slid the pieces into the brew. Several seconds passed and the mixture slowly grew pinker.

"You know, you have a really nice voice."

When had the woman moved closer? She was very near to him again, almost touching his side. Severus made to step away and it must have caught her off guard because she lost her balance and started to fall. Acting completely on reflex, Snape reached out to catch her.

In the ensuing pandemonium, his sleeve caught on the cauldron and then began to smoulder. He tugged it away from the flame, causing the potion to go flying and the potions master to lose his balance as well. He and Tonks ended up on the floor anyway, covered in a goopy mixture that was only slightly darker than Pepto Bismol.

A curse sprang immediately to Snape's lips but was completely forgotten as he saw Tonks' face. Laughter lurked in her eyes for a moment before it was wiped away by another emotion entirely. She breathed softly through her mouth, lips parted slightly and a few wisps of hair fell in front of one eye.

It was almost as if Snape left his own body as his lips met hers, chaste at first before rapidly progressing to rough and hungry. After that, he ceased to think at all as the effects of his potion gripped them and they were lost.

_**oOoOo**_

Severus opened one eye and peered down his body to find a distinctly feminine arm and leg draped across him. Well that explained a few things. Like the light snoring that sounded extremely close to his ear.

He closed his eyes for several minutes, trying for the life of him to remember the circumstances that brought him to this point. Something about a potion, a falling cauldron and…Tonks?

This time his eyes flew open and he turned his head gingerly. The tell-tale flash of color let him know that his memory wasn't as faulty as he'd thought. But still…he'd had sex with _Nymphadora Tonks_?

As he watched, her eyes opened to slits and she graced him with a lazy, sleepy smile. "Wotcher."

Severus had to swallow as her fingers brushed through his chest hairs. "Mm, morning," he rasped out. By Merlin that shouldn't feel as good as it did. A few minutes passed. "You seem happy."

"Oh, I am. Why? Aren't you?"

"Perfectly content. I'm just saying."

"Just saying what?" Her fingers drifted lower.

A soft curse escaped his lips and he closed his eyes with a hum. "I forget."

"Typical bloke," was her laughing response as she slipped on top of him.

Sometime later, after an incredibly satisfying second round of lovemaking, Severus looked up into her eyes and saw adoration. He felt the emotion echoed within himself and somehow he felt far lighter than he had in years.

"I never want this to end," Tonks sighed in a dreamy voice and he murmured his agreement. And really, there was no reason why it should, was there? Except the fact that it was Friday morning. Severus' gaze flicked to the clock on the mantle and he closed his eyes with a groan. "Oh bollocks!"

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"I have class in fifteen minutes." He was already jumping up to pull on his clothes. Tonks rolled onto her side to watch him.

"Are you sure you can't miss it?"

"Yes, I'm bloody sure. Dumbledore would have my hide." Hastily he fastened the buttons of his shirt and pulled up his trousers. He only paused momentarily in tugging on his belt at the sound of her giggle. "It's not funny, Tonks!"

"It is from where I'm lying." She smiled at his obvious haste and frustration. "Need some help?" His only response was to growl at her and reach for his robes. "All right, I'll take that as a 'no' then. Do you have any objection to my staying here to wait for you to come back?"

"Don't you have to go to work?"

"I'll floo in sick," she grinned when he finally looked at her, "It won't be a lie because I think I _am_ sick. Lovesick."

Her smile was finally infectious and he found that he was grinning right back. After doing up the last three buttons, he moved over to the bed to peck her lips. "You may stay. I will be free at half eleven."

"I'll be here waiting, strawberries and whipped cream at the ready," she winked. "The house elves always loved me."

"I think I'm beginning to see why." Severus reached to brush her cheek and kiss her forehead before striding off with a swirl of robes.

All Tonks could do was smile.


End file.
